Leo Varadkar is banning phones from Cabinet meetings.
In one of the first moves to stamp his authority from the new Taoiseach, phones, tablets and all other electronics devices will not be allowed into the Cabinet meeting room from the first meeting he chairs taking place on Wednesday morning.
Cabinet meetings have been rife with leaks in recent years and Mr Varadkar himself was investigated by the gardaí for the leaking of a confidential Cabinet document.
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There was also a ‘sting’ operation within Fine Gael to smoke out a habitual leaker from Cabinet last year.
It is against the Constitution to leak from Cabinet.
Now the second term Taoiseach is moving to cut back on the regular leaking of confidential information at Cabinet making its way into the public domain.
A Cabinet source told the Irish Mirror last night: “It is something that we were told was being introduced on security grounds, but yes, we were told it will be brought in from tomorrow.
“It’s fine, you can’t complain, you’re not supposed to be sending any information out from Cabinet in the first place, either before, during or after.”
The Ministers attending meetings from here on in will be guided to an annexe room beside the room where Cabinet is taking place - normally in the Sycamore Room in Government Buildings.
There will be cubby holes with each of the 15 ministers’ names on them and they will be required to leave all electronic devices there while they are in the main Cabinet room.
The Mirror understands the phones, tablets and other devices will be guarded by security while the minister owners are in Cabinet.
One of the reasons the new strict rules are being introduced is reported to be over fears of ‘electronic spying.’
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